Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-09-03
The POWER OF THE GOSPEL.
Il Ia Powerful to Transform the Human
Character.
Ia Powerful to Console the Afflicted and
the Bearsavea.
sbe Ohristiar People Arc the Witnesses Of
Ys~ss Powers.
Christian Experiences at the Bedside Of the
Dying.


THE HAMPToNs, Aug. 2l.-The Facts
Proved is the subject of discourse by
the Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage. DID,, to-
day. His text is from the fifteenth
verse OF Acts Ill:
"we are witnesses"
Following is his ermon in full:
In the days of George Stephenson,
the perfector of the locomotive engine,
the scientists proved conclusively that
a railway train could never be driven
by steam power successfully and with
outperil; butthe rushing express trains
from Liverpool to Edinburgh. and from
Edinburgh to London, have made al
the nation witnesses IF the splendid
achievement. Machinists and naviga-
tors proved concluslvely that a steamer
could never cross the Atlantic ocean
but no sooner had they successfully
proved the impossibility OF such an
undertaking than the work was done,
and the passengers on the Cunard, and
the Inman, and the National, and the
White Star lines are witnesses. There
went up a guffaw of wise laughter at
Prof. Morse's proposition to make the
lightning of heaven Lis errand boy,
and it was proved conolusively that
the thing could never be done; but now
all the news of the wide world, by AS
.sociated Press put in your hands every
Morning and night, has made all ma
tons witnesses.
III POSITION OF II SKEPTIC.
SO in the time of Christ it was proved
oonclusively that it was impossible for
HIM 10 rise from the dead. 1t was
shown logically that when a man was
dead. he was dead, and the heart and
the liver and the lungs having ceased
b. perform their Offices, the limbs
weaId be rigid beyond all power Of
friction and arousal. They showed it
TO be an absolute absurdity that the
dead Christ should aver get up alive;
but no sooner had they proved this
than the dead Christ arose, and the
disciples beheId Him, heard His voice
and talked with Him. and they took the
witness stand to prove that to be true
which the wiseaeres of the day had
proved to be impossible; the record of
the experiment and Of the testimony is
in the text: Him hath God raised
from the dead, whereof we are wit
nesses."
Now. let me play the skeptic for a
moment. There is no God" says the
skeptic, 'for / have never seen Him
with my physical eyesight. Your
Bible is a pack of contradictions. There
never was a miracle. Lazarus was not
raised from the dead, and the water
was never turned into wine. Your
is an imposition on the credul-
ity of the ages" There is an aged
man moving in that pew as though he
would like to respond. Here are
of people with faces a little
flushed at these announcements, and
al through this house there is a sup
pressed feeling which would like to
speak out in behalf of the truth of our
glorious Christianity as in the days of
The text. crying out: 1--WE are wit
+, ,ssos."
1rr WORLD TO BIZ CONVERTED 81 TEs-
TIMOnY.
The fact is, that if this world is ever
brought to God. it will not be through
but through testimony. You
cover tho whole earth with apol-
ogies for Christianity and learned
treatises in defense Of re!igion-you
would not convert n soul. Lectures on
the harmony between science and re-
igion are beautiful mental discipline.
but nave never saved u soul, and never
Will save a soul. Pat a man of the
world and a man of the church against
each other, and the man of the world
will in all probability get the triumph.
There are a thousand things in our re-
ligion that seem illogical TO the world.
and always will seem illogical.
Our weapon in this conflict is faith,
not logic; faith, not metaphysics; faith,
not profits lily; faith, not scholastic ex-
Hut then, in order to have
faith, we must have testimony. and If
Eve hundred men, or one thousand
lnnn, or five hundred thousand men. or
i've million men get up and tell me
that they have. felt the religion Of Jesus
a Joy, q comfort. a help. an in
,biras;cn, ! Az bound rs a faiI-minded
nan to accept taer testimony. want
fust now to put before you three prop
nitions, the truth af which | think this
tudience will attest with overwhelming
,panimity.
The first proposition is: We are wit
lesses that the religion of Christ is able
o convert q soul.